


When In Rome

by garands



Series: Zutara Month 2k16 [7]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, kind of, lowkey enemies to lovers, secret agent AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-08
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2018-09-15 15:37:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9242084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/garands/pseuds/garands
Summary: “Well, what a pleasant surprise,” she hissed.“Didn’t expect to see me so soon?” He grabbed two champagne flutes from the passing busboy.“After Berlin I figured you’d be out for longer.” She took the flute from his hand, pursing her lips. “Are you trying to poison me?”He smiled. “Never.”





	

**Author's Note:**

> i started listening to the man from uncle soundtrack and got carried away.  
> for day 7 (unexpected visits)  
> -  
> katara and zuko work for the same agency and she (maybe) breaks his nose and gets sent to rome to lay low.
> 
> edit: so after a year of being mia i've come back lmao. i rewrote parts of this and plan on expanding on this and, if all things go according to my great big fat life plan, i'll finish the 2016 prompts (hopefully)

Katara had never been known for working well with others. It was a well-known fact around their headquarters that she was not to be assigned a partner. Her superior officer knew it, she knew it, and her last partner knew it. But the pesky British boy from their sister agency –otherwise known as Brooding and British- could not seem to get it through his thick skull.

It was bad enough he would talk to her during briefings or when she was picking up breakfast from that little bakery on the corner of seventh, but when he’d managed to assign himself to her case – the most important case the agency had seen in years – she was downright livid.

The Berlin case was a monster of a case. Millions of euros were embezzled and laundered, hundreds of people murdered and disposed of, and it was _her_  case. This was her chance to prove her worth, to who she wasn’t sure, but it was a defining moment. Until he came and took the rug right out from under her. Brooding and British had done more than upstage her, he’d shaken her to the very foundation of her being. So she did what any trained agent would do: she broke his nose and his shooting arm. It had earned her unpaid administrative leave.

She wasn’t proud of it now, she did feel _some_ remorse. But it had felt so great in the moment; the satisfying crack of his nose under her palm, the look of shock in his eyes as she twisted his arm so hard it popped out of the socket. Now she realized every single thing she’d been working toward had been wiped clean by her actions. So when she was offered a position in Rome to act as an informant and ‘ _nothing else, do you understand? You will be working undercover and will under no circumstances engage anyone_ ’ she’d taken it. Heart-wrenching as it was to have to start from ground zero again.

* * *

_Rome, Italy_

Katara had been circulating the floor for what felt like hours, though she’d only arrived forty minutes ago. The dress she was wearing left her back cold and susceptible to be touched by the wandering hands of rich businessmen. Not to mention her heels were thin enough to be classified as weapons.

She had yet to spot the couple she’d been sent to look for and befriend: Emilia and Antonio Rossi, currently under the aliases Lia and Tony Carter. They were a piece of the Berlin puzzle that had managed to escape relatively unscathed. They’d changed their names and appearance and fled the country, remaining undiscovered and unseen until last week. It was a happy coincidence that Katara had been establishing an undercover identity in the same city.

She leaned against a granite pillar, debating on taking a bathroom break when someone came into her line of sight, walking closer and closer to her. She turned her head, expecting another man with a wandering hand but instead met eyes with a sharp-chinned young man.  _Zuko._

“Oh, for fuck’s sake-”

“I’d watch the language if I was you, sweetheart. We may be surrounded by Italians but curse words are recognizable in many languages.” He smiled warmly at her, she’d have been fooled were it not for the lack of warmth in his eyes. He probably wasn’t going to forgive her for the things she’d done, it had put him in the hospital for quite a bit.

“Well, what a pleasant surprise,” she hissed.

“Didn’t expect to see me so soon?” He grabbed two champagne flutes from a passing busboy.

“After Berlin I figured you’d be out for longer.” She took the flute from his hand, pursing her lips. “Are you trying to poison me?”

He smiled. “Never.”

There was a pause as they both drank the champagne.

“Not on purpose anyway.”

It was Katara’s turn to smile, yet she felt the warmth of shame on her cheeks. “Why are you here?”

Zuko cocked a brow. “I’m surprised you didn’t know. Much to my chagrin, we’ve been assigned to work together on this.”

He let her digest the words, maintaining an infuriatingly calm look on his face. “They don’t exactly trust you after the stunt you pulled with me, you know?”

Deep breaths. Deep breaths could get you through anything. They had to. Enough deep breaths through the tight  _tight_  dress would make everything better. They had to.

“I’m afraid that’s not all. They want our identities to be married, and this is our honeymoon.”

She was ready to protest, but an idea had already sparked and spread. She could take this. She could fake a marriage to Zuko in order to gain her status back. Showing the agency she could work with the person she’d once put in the hospital would be the biggest step to reparations she could take. Zuko was examining her, waiting for her reply.

“So?”

“So what? I’ll do it.”


End file.
